How To's, Questions, and Solutions for problems. This covers anything from computer hardware problems to software recommendations to tutorials for various software programs.

Note: Neither Gametoast nor any of its members/visitors are responsible for any damage to your computer as a result from advice given in this forum. Follow advice at your own risk and be sure to back up any important files.

Well hello there! You must be reading this because you need your computer cleaned up and free of viruses and spyware. I'm writing this tutorial to help people on gametoast have a better and faster computer for pwning people on games.

Step 1: Snipin' some viruses

The first step we need to take care of is getting rid of viruses! So go out and download http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/ and install it. Now AVG Free in my opinion is the best FREE anti-virus program available on the internet at the moment.

You're going to want to do a full system scan like twice. If any are picked up then let AVG quarantine them. I prefer quarantining them over deleting because deleting has the ability to reproduce the virus again. That should take care of your viruses!

Step 2: Am I being watched?

You know the feeling when you think you're being watched? Well on your computer, this is most likely true because of something called spyware. Spyware really slows down the speed of your computer because everything your doing is being sent to a server. So to get rid of those peeping toms we're going to need Adware Lavasoft, found at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php. This program is again, free! My whole family uses this program and its recommended by sites such as CNet. Anyways, open up this program and run a Smart Scan. After thats done, run a Full system scan because I can assure you that theres still more stuff to be taken care of. Delete all those files and your computer should be running a bit faster.

Step 3: Fung shui on your hard drive!

The last thing we need to do is Disk Defragmenter. This program comes with windows so all we need to do to get this one is open it up via Start -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter. Now this is the part where you go take a nap because this program takes a while to run. But, after its done see how fast your computer starts up, shuts down, and runs programs!

I hope this tutorial has been of some help to you because I'm writing this right after I woke up just plain out of the blue!

It's really bad at the moment since I just finished closing all the gaps and cracks with 9 cilinders of sealants and 40 litres of foam, which took me about 2 weeks (old house), and I'm halfway done painting my room now. It's a complete utter mess. (though I cleaned up a little today) I have to take a big leap just to jump into my bed without getting stuck in all sorts of junk

Anyway I always keep the computer clean, and next to adaware I can also recommend Spybot S&D. I'd use no others than those, because otherwise you risk downloading stuff that pretends to be a scanner/remover while in fact it's bad stuf itself (like spysherrif, to name one.)

What about a good pre-windows start up disk defragmenter? I've tried several Defrag progs including windows built-in, O&O Defrag, and Ultimate Defrag, still to no avail. (Stuck @ 68-70% fragged, depending on how many times I defrag, and yes, it gets more fragged sometimes when I defrag. Most of the time stays the same.)

Also, here are a couple more things I've found useful to have on my PC:

-Bazooka Scanner: This program scans in about 2 seconds and picks up keyloggers and a bit of other spyware, so it's probably worth having.
-Spybot-Search And Destroy: This is a utility your PC should never be without. One of the best spyware removers available. (Also catches tracking cookies - Run at least twice a week.)
-CCleaner: This utility cleans your registry and system of unnecessary entries and temporary files, and it's a must for ensuring clean operation. To date, I have had it remove several thousand unused registry entries and several gigabytes of temporary and otherwise pointless files, and my system's all the better.

These three utilities will keep your system almost as clean as possible when used with the other ones listed in the first post, and I highly recommend all of them.

ShadowHawk wrote:What about a good pre-windows start up disk defragmenter? I've tried several Defrag progs including windows built-in, O&O Defrag, and Ultimate Defrag, still to no avail. (Stuck @ 68-70% fragged, depending on how many times I defrag, and yes, it gets more fragged sometimes when I defrag. Most of the time stays the same.)

If you're looking for a decent disk defragmenter, use Diskkeeper - you can get it HERE (they have a fully functioning trialware version you can download for free)

It has an option to do a boot sector defragmentation upon startup. This is the program that the MS version of Defrag was based on. It's much quicker, and has many more options for defragging that the Windows version does not seem to have. I'm sure if you use it you'll really like it - by far the best defragger around.

I tried diskeeper and it still never fully defragged my hdd, but I just tried PerfectDisk 8 and it worked great. Took several passes though, but it eventually knocked it down to 3% fragged instead of 25-35% on the others no matter how many times it was ran.

I feel like I should say that when you're careful and thoughtful on what you install on your computer, those "system care" tools will only bog down your computer even more.Unless you have a lot of unnecessary programs running all the time and plenty of RAM, gamebooster may only mess up some of the processes that you really do need.

You probably don't need all of them most of the time, but i have occasionally used them all.

Have you even tried gamebooster? I'm not sure you get what it does properly. It stops SERVICES that are running in the background. I'll give you a minor example. Do you really need printer services running while you're playing games? Granted, something as small as that won't make a lot of difference, but gamebooster disables a fair few services which, in the end, makes a difference.

One of the tools I'd highly recommend, especially for those low on ram (<2 gb), is the smart ram tool in system care. Purging the RAM is extremely useful sometimes....

lucasfart wrote:Have you even tried gamebooster? I'm not sure you get what it does properly. It stops SERVICES that are running in the background. I'll give you a minor example. Do you really need printer services running while you're playing games? Granted, something as small as that won't make a lot of difference, but gamebooster disables a fair few services which, in the end, makes a difference.

Okay, let's get something straight here. You and mswf are BOTH right, there's no need for snotty accusations like "Have you even TRIED it?"Stopping services and ending processes are the exact same thing. And frankly, mswf is right, gamebooster may end some processes you might actually need. Like a firewall, for example. All he said was to be careful when using it. Make sure you uncheck any services/processes/programs in gamebooster's list that you may actually need.